Geordie Williamson works in Representation Theory, the mathematical theory of linear symmetry. He has made several fundamental contributions to the field including his proof (with Ben Elias) of the Kazhdan-Lusztig positivity conjecture, his algebraic proof of the Jantzen conjectures, and his discovery of counter-examples to the expected bounds in the Lusztig conjecture in modular representation theory. This last result came as a shock to a whole community of researchers, and has since shifted the focus away from old conjectures.

For his work he has been awarded the Chevalley Prize of the American Mathematical Society, the European Mathematics Society Prize, the Clay Research Award and the New Horizons Prize in Mathematics (with Ben Elias). In 2018 he will address the International Congress of Mathematicians as a plenary speaker. 

Geordie is currently Professor of Mathematics at the University of Sydney. Prior to coming to Sydney he spent five years as an Advanced Researcher at the Max Planck Institute in Bonn. In 2020 he will lead a special year on Representation Theory at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.